Portrait of a Sports Gamer

Many of us here at OCC can be accurately identified as a gamer, myself included. Of course there are different kinds of gamers, based on the games we like to play, from role-playing games and adventure games, to first person shooters and sports games. Researchers at Concordia University decided to study gamers, especially sports gamers, as this particular group is different from the others.

Though the stereotype is that gamers are younger men, if you actual survey enough gamers you will find all ages are represented and many female gamers, but this is not the case for sports gamers. The researchers surveyed 1718 gamers and found that 98.4% of sports gamers are male, 80% are white, and the average sports gamer is younger than the average gamer, at just 26 years old. They also found, unsurprisingly, that 93.3% of sports gamers are self-identified sports fans who follow specific teams or sports as part of their daily habits.

Why sports gaming has a lack of diversity relative to other kinds of gaming is still unknown, though the solution may lie in outside the games and in their sport fandom. An upcoming book by the researchers titled Sports Videogames is where they hope to address this question and others.